GDI Los Angeles Dating Conference 2019

June 12, 2019 until June 13, 2019, Santa Monica

Global Dating Insights is delighted to announce the return of our Los Angeles Conference, presented in 2019 in association with Google, SendBird, Censio and Spectrum!

GDI is proud to welcome Google as first time sponsors of our LA event. Professionals and executives from the online dating industry can find Think with Google’s “3 lessons app marketers can learn from Gen Z dating trends” here, and our follow up interview with Paul Frantz, Industry Director, U.S. Sales at Google, on our Interviews page.

SendBird is a fully customisable chat and messaging platform with a managed infrastructure for mobile and web applications. Their product includes everything you need to create a premium and secure messaging experience, and it can scale over 1 million concurrent chat connections and 500 million messages per day. With SendBird, dating brands can build engaged communities and give users a seamlessly branded experience.

Censio is the first matchmaking app. Just like a matchmaker, Censio guides users from the start of the search process, all the way through to finding, meeting, and matching with that special someone. The platform uses a proprietary AI technology to curate highly compatible matches based on behaviours, personality, activities, and ‘real life’ past dating experiences.

Spectrum helps some of the worlds largest dating companies recognise and respond to toxic behaviour on their platforms in real time in order to keep their users safe and their online communities healthy. They provide enterprise-level tools to manage existing and emerging threats to trust and safety, including underage users, harassment, and sexual assaults.

The GDI Los Angeles Conference 2019 takes place on Thursday 13th June at the stunning Shutters on the Beach Hotel, a stone’s throw from Santa Monica Pier.

Speaker sessions run from 10am – 5pm, and the conference is followed by an evening of networking and socialising.

On the night before the event, Wednesday 12th June, GDI will also be hosting executive networking drinks at a (TBC) location nearby.

GDI Founder Simon Corbett said: “We can’t wait to return to Shutters and host dating executives at our second annual stateside conference.

“It’s an honour to be joined by SendBird, Google, Spectrum and Censio this time around, as well as some terrific speakers from across the sector.

“Tickets are live on the site now! Be sure to sign up and secure your place at the number one dating industry event in the US!”

Find our speakers to the right of this article, and tickets in the article header.

Event Agenda

Time	Speaker
10.00 - 10.15	Simon Corbett, Founder, Global Dating Insights, Registration & Welcome
10.15 - 10.30	Adam Cohen-Aslatei, CEO & Founder, S'More, Why Dating Apps Were Built to Fail
10.30 - 10.45	Leigh Isaacson, Co-Founder & CEO, Dig, Digging into the Press: How to be Newsworthy
10.45 - 11.00	Blake Watters, Director of Sales Engineering, Sendbird; Leslie Moniz, Account Executive, Sendbird; Jason Hsu, Director of Mobile Engineering, Hinge, Next Steps: Where is Dating Heading in the Conversational Economy?
11:00 - 11:15	Christy Edwards, Founder, Righter, Conservative Dating: Why the Demand?
11:15 - 11:30	Coffee / Break
11:30 - 11:45	Adam Cohen-Aslatei, CEO & Founder, S'More; Phil Henricks, Senior Director of Marketing, Growlr, Panel Discussion: Where is Gay Dating Today?
11:45 - 12:00	Justin Zhen, Co-Founder, Thinknum, Wielding External Data in the Dating App War
12:00 - 12:15	Justin Davis, CEO & Co-Founder, Spectrum, Trust & Safety: Liars & Trolls & Bad Guys, Oh AI!
12:15 - 12:30	Mark Brooks, Founder, Courtland Brooks, State of the Industry
12:30 - 12:45	Ross Williams, Founder & CEO, Venntro Media Group, Invading the USA: Failures and Lessons Learned About the USA Market From a UK Perspective
12:45 - 13:45	Lunch
13:45 - 14:00	Phil Henricks, Senior Director of Marketing, Growlr, Lessons From the LGBTQ Market
14:00 - 14:15	Carmelia Ray, Chief Matchmaker, Censio; Cyr Mongo, Co-Founder & CEO, Censio, Why the Censio Approach Meets the Needs of the Dating Industry and is the Future of Online Dating
14:15 - 14:30	Catherine Cook Connelly, Co-Founder & VP Brand Strategy, The Meet Group, Dating Goes Live — Impact of Live Video on Dating
14:30 - 14:45	Mariko Tokioka, CEO & Founder, EastMeetEast, Fundraising in the Dating Industry
14:45 - 15:00	Coffee / Break
15:00 - 15:30	Tony Watkins, Head of Industry, Google, Building for the Future
15:30 - 15:45	Amanda Bradford, CEO & Founder, The League, Death of the First Date: How The League Used Video to Solve the Worst Part of Dating
15:45 - 16:15	Ross Williams, Founder & CEO, Venntro Media Group; Mark Brooks, Founder, Courtland Brooks; Catherine Cook Connelly, Co-founder & VP Brand Strategy, The Meet Group, Panel Discussion: 3 Years from Now
16:15 - Late	Drinks & Networking

2019 Sponsor: Google
GDI is proud to welcome Google as first time sponsors of our LA event. Professionals and executives from the online dating industry can find Think with Google's "3 lessons app marketers can learn from Gen Z dating trends" on the GDI Editorial page, and our follow up interview with Paul Frantz, Industry Director, U.S. Sales at Google, on our Interviews page.
2019 Sponsor: SendBird
SendBird is a fully customisable chat and messaging platform with a managed infrastructure for mobile and web applications. Their product includes everything you need to create a premium and secure messaging experience, and can scale over 1 million concurrent chat connections and 500 million messages per day. With SendBird, dating brands can build engaged communities and give users a seamlessly branded experience.
2019 Sponsor: Censio
Censio is the first matchmaking app. Just like a matchmaker, Censio guides users from the start of the search process, all the way through to finding, meeting, and matching with that special someone. The platform uses a proprietary AI technology to curate highly compatible matches based on behaviors, personality, activities, and ‘real life’ past dating experiences.
2019 Sponsor: Spectrum
Spectrum helps some of the worlds largest dating companies recognise and respond to toxic behaviour on their platforms in real time in order to keep their users safe and their online communities healthy. They provide enterprise-level tools to manage existing and emerging threats to trust and safety, including underage users, harassment, and sexual assaults.
Adam Cohen-Aslatei
Adam Cohen-Aslatei is the CEO and Founder of startup dating platform S'More, as well as the former Managing Director of Chappy and an independent industry consultant. A Harvard alumnus and expert in the GBTQ dating space, Cohen-Aslatei's session will consider the ways in which dating apps are "built to fail".
The Meet Group
The Meet Group, having drawn inspiration from innovators in Asia, implemented video streaming and virtual gifting functionalities in 2017 to great effect. Their apps made close to $50 million from the features in year one, and the company continues to pioneer and expand the social entertainment model in Western markets.
Hinge
Relationship-focused Hinge has seen terrific growth since launching in 2012. “Designed to be Deleted”, Match Group’s recent acquisition takes a data-driven approach to product design and continually refines its offering to give singles a premium dating experience. Hinge will attend with 2019 sponsors SendBird to discuss the technology behind their messaging interface.
Phil Henricks
Phil Henricks is a marketing and business development consultant in the global online dating space, having formerly worked as Director of Marketing and VP of Strategy and Business Development for gay dating umbrella Online Buddies. His clients have included the Russia-based Love Planet, where he helped the brand to make an impact in the US LGBTQ market.
Thinknum
Thinknum maintains alternative datasets on over 400,000 companies, tracking metrics such as in-app Facebook logins, social media followings and LinkedIn job listings. The firm’s work on the dating industry often tells a different story to brand press releases, so expect a fresh perspective on the trends shaping the sector.
Dig
Dig - The Dog Person’s Dating App connects dog-lovers who are looking to find a compatible partner and to plan a dog-friendly date. Features include dedicated profile sections for dogs, information on dog-friendly date locations near you, a daily deal from dog companies, and tips from vets and trainers.
Righter
Righter makes it safe and simple to develop meaningful connections with fun, intelligent conservatives. Running slogans such as “when you’re tired of getting swiped left on for your political beliefs, use Righter”, the service is marketed at voters who feel unwelcome on mainstream swipe-based services.
Dr. Brittany Barreto
Dr. Brittany Barreto is the CEO and Co-founder of DNA relationship services Pheramor and WeHaveChemistry. By using specially designed DNA kits she matches singles based on physical and emotional compatibility and helps established couples create the strongest possible partnerships.
Venntro Media Group
Venntro Media Group is the umbrella to White Label Dating, a leading online dating provider. The company helps media brands, affiliates and entrepreneurs to create their own online dating sites or networks. Founder and CEO Ross Williams will reflect on some of the lessons he has learnt trying to operate in the US.
Mark Brooks
Mark Brooks is the founder of the Internet Dating Excellence Association (IDEA) and consultancy Courtland Brooks. Courtland Brooks is the only agency-consultancy in the world to focus totally on internet dating and online matchmaking, while IDEA looks to help the internet dating industry achieve its long term potential.
The League
The League Founder Amanda Bradford’s mission is to create power couples. Using data and social graphs from both Facebook and LinkedIn to fuel its proprietary algorithm, The League can offer its users complete privacy, more context about potential matches, and a curated community of professional singles.
EastMeetEast
EastMeetEast is a successful platform for creating happy, passionate, and fulfilling relationships - over 115,000 individuals have found partners through the site so far. By matching couples with mutual backgrounds and interests, the service has solidified its position as a top Asian dating site in recent years